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side with a stainless steel sink at one end.  Shelves of neatly folded
sheets lined the far wall, capped off at both ends with big red biohazard trash
cans.  It was ice cold in the room, but the shivers racing down my spine had
more to do with the fact that I was in the morgue than the temperature.
    “There’re no windows in
here,” Nathan said in response to my ‘Are you crazy ?’ look.  Turning
around, he studied the oversized drawers across from us and then turned back to
look at me with a frown.  “She’s not here.”
    “Yes she is,” I whispered,
staring past him at the long stainless steel autopsy table in the center of the
room.  Well, more specifically at the sheet-draped body on that table. 
A body with bright red curls.
    Though I knew I didn’t have
a lot of time, I moved toward that table like I was in a film permanently stuck
in slow motion.  For a long moment, I just stood there looking down at the girl
who’d taken my place.  Casey Carson.  She’d only been seventeen, a junior at
Moonlight High.  The kids from OA and MHS attended all the same parties and
bonfires, so I’d seen her around.  She’d always seemed nice.  Then, so had the
two girls who’d died before her.
    “What now, baby?” Nathan
asked quietly, cupping my face in his hands when he saw the tears in my eyes. 
“We can mourn for her later, Em.  Right now, we have to hurry okay?”
    “I-I don’t know what to do,”
I admitted, looking away from the sympathy in his eyes.
    “Touch her, ma petit .” 
    I whirled around with a gasp
of surprise to find a ghost I’d never seen before standing across the table
from me.   She was stunning.  She was wearing a gown with a long-waisted bodice
that showed more than a hint of cleavage.  The bodice flowed into a narrow
skirt that was draped and pinned up artfully in the back in contrasting shades
of lavender.  Kim and I had seen something very like it at a fashion museum she
had dragged me to a couple of years back.  Her dark hair was swept up on the
sides and cascaded down her back in a waterfall of curls. 
    She was very different from
the ghosts I’d known before.  There was no blast of cold air, no creepy-crawly
feeling.  In fact, I felt almost…peaceful in her presence.  To my surprise, I
actually found myself smiling at her.
     “She has gone on, but there
is still much to be learned from her.  You must look with more than just your
eyes to see the message she has left for us,” she continued her instruction,
giving me a gentle smile in return.  “Come, ma petite .  I will show
you the way.   Lay your hands just so.”
    She placed her transparent
hands on the dead girl between us, one over her forehead and one over her
heart.  Without thinking, I copied her actions.  Our fingers brushed as she
pulled her hands back, and I felt like I’d just stuck my finger in a light
socket.  I nearly jumped backwards as a jolt of electricity shot all the way up
my arm to my shoulder.  I swear I felt my hair stand on end at the contact.
    “Em, what are you staring
at?” Nathan asked, sounding even more uneasy than when he was telling me about
being locked in a coffin as a prank. 
    “Hush,” I whispered, still
staring at my ghostly tutor.  “I’ll explain later.”
    “Close your eyes,” my ghost
said softly, smiling over at Nathan.  When I balked, she turned that gentle
smile back toward me.  “It will be all right, Ember.  Close your eyes and focus
on nothing but the child whom you touch.  I will see that no harm comes to you;
have no fear.”
    Without so much as blinking
an eye, I did as I was instructed, trusting her to keep both Nathan and I
safe.  Given my inability to trust even the love of my life, that instant faith
in her should have worried me, but it didn’t.  I simply felt safe, the way I
did with my friend Tyler.  It wasn’t something I could explain; it was simply
there.
    “Center yourself, ma
petit ,” the ghost across from me said